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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2zS0SOj:unicornduke replied to your post “A pair of ladies showed up at 3:25 for the 4:00 fresh chicken sale. …”
it’s really the worst. people just expect they can show up to a farm whenever they want. my parents’ farm is only open friday nights and the weekend and the number of people that show up during the week is astounding.
Ugh I feel you. People feel free to stop by here too, and demand tours. One guy made my b-i-l, in the middle of a work day, stop and give him a 45-minute explanation of what “organic” means and why he should care about sustainable farming. Which, like, ok, cool, but it’s 2pm on a Thursday and I’m on the clock, buddy, and if I don’t feed those pigs they’re going to eat the fence and come get me. Some lady who buys $5 of eggs per week demanded a personal tour for her and her friends and he didn’t tell them to fuck off! He’s a nicer guy than me. (Some of that is a problem of anyone self-employed, though– people just assume you’re not busy because your boss isn’t going to make you do anything because you’re the boss, right? and it’s like, uh, if I don’t do it now I have to do it later, I actually don’t get to slack off?)
In this case some of it is because they *do* encourage people to come by the farm, though. Most CSAs have a drop-off point, so you don’t ever have to go all the way out to the farm, you just grab a box from wherever your pickup point is. But this one, it’s required that you come to the farm to pick up. (And they make you bring your own box, lol. You have to go through and sort out how many of whatever you’re supposed to get. Which is good because there’s free choice on some things, and if you don’t like eggplant, you can take an extra pepper instead, or whatever.) They want there to be a community aspect, and for the subscriber to feel like they have some stake of ownership in the whole farm. And there’s a U-pick component– there’s a perennial herb and flower garden, and an annual picking garden full of flowers, herbs, and things like cherry tomatoes and tomatillos and husk cherries.
The previous owners had a much smaller picking garden and were pretty down on the idea of anyone coming by not during set pickup hours, but my sister and her husband have told subscribers they can come pick during any daylight hours all season; they don’t mind. And the self-serve egg fridge is open noon to 7pm daily.
It’s just that events that require staffing, like the plant and meat sales, have very specific start and end times, and usually we’re rushing like mad ahead of those times and can’t stop to help some person who showed up early!
Sister says I’m not really allowed to be annoyed with the people who showed up 45 minutes early yesterday, though, because they were a pair of mobility-impaired old ladies who bought $200 worth of chicken, and they surely came early because they knew they’d have to park like jerks because the driveway is hard to navigate if you have a cane (it’s gravel). So, I remain annoyed like the dog was, but I can see their perspective. They weren’t impatient, they were willing to wait in their car, they just wanted to get in and buy their stuff and get out before everyone else showed up and it got crowded and became a Problem that they were parked so close.
Some other dude bought twelve chickens, which was kind of cool. We might actually not get to put any of this batch into the freezer. But that’s fine, we already laid in our inventory over the summer to last us until May, when we start processing again.
it’s really the worst. people just expect they can show up to a farm whenever they want. my parents’ farm is only open friday nights and the weekend and the number of people that show up during the week is astounding.
Ugh I feel you. People feel free to stop by here too, and demand tours. One guy made my b-i-l, in the middle of a work day, stop and give him a 45-minute explanation of what “organic” means and why he should care about sustainable farming. Which, like, ok, cool, but it’s 2pm on a Thursday and I’m on the clock, buddy, and if I don’t feed those pigs they’re going to eat the fence and come get me. Some lady who buys $5 of eggs per week demanded a personal tour for her and her friends and he didn’t tell them to fuck off! He’s a nicer guy than me. (Some of that is a problem of anyone self-employed, though– people just assume you’re not busy because your boss isn’t going to make you do anything because you’re the boss, right? and it’s like, uh, if I don’t do it now I have to do it later, I actually don’t get to slack off?)
In this case some of it is because they *do* encourage people to come by the farm, though. Most CSAs have a drop-off point, so you don’t ever have to go all the way out to the farm, you just grab a box from wherever your pickup point is. But this one, it’s required that you come to the farm to pick up. (And they make you bring your own box, lol. You have to go through and sort out how many of whatever you’re supposed to get. Which is good because there’s free choice on some things, and if you don’t like eggplant, you can take an extra pepper instead, or whatever.) They want there to be a community aspect, and for the subscriber to feel like they have some stake of ownership in the whole farm. And there’s a U-pick component– there’s a perennial herb and flower garden, and an annual picking garden full of flowers, herbs, and things like cherry tomatoes and tomatillos and husk cherries.
The previous owners had a much smaller picking garden and were pretty down on the idea of anyone coming by not during set pickup hours, but my sister and her husband have told subscribers they can come pick during any daylight hours all season; they don’t mind. And the self-serve egg fridge is open noon to 7pm daily.
It’s just that events that require staffing, like the plant and meat sales, have very specific start and end times, and usually we’re rushing like mad ahead of those times and can’t stop to help some person who showed up early!
Sister says I’m not really allowed to be annoyed with the people who showed up 45 minutes early yesterday, though, because they were a pair of mobility-impaired old ladies who bought $200 worth of chicken, and they surely came early because they knew they’d have to park like jerks because the driveway is hard to navigate if you have a cane (it’s gravel). So, I remain annoyed like the dog was, but I can see their perspective. They weren’t impatient, they were willing to wait in their car, they just wanted to get in and buy their stuff and get out before everyone else showed up and it got crowded and became a Problem that they were parked so close.
Some other dude bought twelve chickens, which was kind of cool. We might actually not get to put any of this batch into the freezer. But that’s fine, we already laid in our inventory over the summer to last us until May, when we start processing again.
